If you are a regular to Facebook’s earnings calls, then you know the drill.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg will likely run through his three big goals — connecting everyone, understanding the world, and building the knowledge economy. (I always read that as sign everyone up to Facebook, have them share their personal data and lives, and make money off it through advertising. Relevant advertising, Facebook would argue!)

Operating chief Sheryl Sandberg will tout the numbers while sprinkling in the names of companies big and small that are finding success by marketing on Facebook. She calls out those names the way the president nods to guests sitting in the balcony during the State of the Union address.

But there are some good storylines to look for. The Journal’s Reed Albergotti flagged a few already: Will we see more numbers on Instagram advertising, how goes the so-far impressive shift to mobile, what’s the state of the ad network, and are Facebook users still heavily engaged with the service. I’d throw in that hopefully we will get some more info on the Oculus and WhatsApp strategies. I am also curious whether that psychological study on news feeds comes up — was it noise or did it have any tangible impact on users.

The unofficial close for Facebook’s stock in NY trading: $71.29, up close to 3%. Investors were clearly confident today that the success story will continue. After hours, the stock is down 10 cents or so – nearly flat.

The big numbers — aside from the balance-sheet stuff — will be monthly active users, and the percentage of those people that use Facebook daily. After that, the numbers will be advertising revenue, and how much of it came from mobile. That latter data was what really caught Wall Street off guard in the past year. It’s no overstatement to say it went from zero to hero in short order.

In the first quarter, Facebook said it had 1.28 billion people using the service each month, with 63% visiting daily. As for mobile, it comprised 59% of the ad kitty. One thing to keep in mind when the numbers come out: Ad impressions have been falling since Facebook shows fewer ads on mobile than it did on desktop. That makes sense, since desktop has a permanent spot for ads, while on mobile it is in the stream and a potential annoyance for people.

I would have expected a bigger move, but there was already a healthy gain during regular trading. I didn’t see any big misses — 0r even misses. The top-line growth in users isn’t astounding, but it’s hard to show a big percentage move when your base is in the billions. The mobile ad number is over 60% now. Net more than doubled. Revenue was up 61%. No sign that I can tell that people are using the service less frequently.

Looking at the daily active users: The growth in the U.S. and Canada was slim. But that’s always been the case — a gain of 2 to 3 percentage points quarter to quarter. It was slim in Europe too — the developed world is on board already. The biggest growth came from Asia and the rest of the world.

If you are into the wonkier parts of an earnings statement: operating margin — that’s how much revenue is left over after paying for stuff — was 59%. That’s up from 55% in the prior quarter, and 44% a year earlier. The larger the number, the better. The GAAP operating margin was 48%, up from 43% in Q1 and 31% in Q2 of 2013.

Zuckerberg is going through the opening statements. One thing that is exciting, he says, is that there is “still so much room to grow.” He mentions that people in the US spend 9 hours a day on digital media, but less than an hour on Facebook. So he sees that as a growth opportunity. (And, well, if he does want to connect everyone in the world …)

Sandberg continues Zuck’s shout out to small business ad success. She is recounting her visit to India, and how a specific small business there is using Facebook to grow its business. Our first State of the Union moment.

The World Cup was huge — and was huge on Facebook. (And, of course, brands capitalized on that, too, by creating videos on Facebook. McDonald’s made a video with french fries playing soccer. I didn’t see that one, but apparently 125 million people did.)

Wehner takes the mic to go deeper on the financials. This is his first call — David Ebersman stepped down earlier this year. Wehner said ad prices effectively more than doubled because more of them are in news feed. That’s valuable real estate. Ad impressions were down 25%, because if Facebook showed as many ads in news feed on mobile as it did on desktop, there actually would be a revolt.

Expenses for all of 2014 are less than the company thought, because of better efficiency. Expenses will go up down the road, including in 2015, in part because of stock doled out as part of the WhatsApp and Oculus deals. But Facebook plans to spend on hiring and building up the business, too.

After a hiccup with the conference call equipment, first question is on the audience network. Sandberg reiterates Facebook’s goal of relevant ads. We’re in early days — when do the early days end? Follow on Oculus and WhatsApp. Specifically was a question on headcount, but Wehner demurs.

Sandberg is thrilled at the mobile ad question. She says mobile app installs are only part of the story … there are big and small advertisers, too, using ads. So the mobile ad revenue isn’t concentrated in just one place. The eggs are in several baskets.

The follow up answer: Sandberg says advertisers are starting to discover how creative marketers can be on Facebook. TV isn’t the only creative outlet. “We’re seeing that change.” Basically, people are thinking of Facebook in terms of TV ads (and budgets).

Sandberg says there was a small test in the US for “buy.” No one is buying from us, she says. “I think commerce is important.” But she wants to be clear that Facebook isn’t selling anything. It is just making it easier for marketers. Zuck jumps in: Facebook will do work to accept payments and all that, but FB still sees itself as a partner. “Our main business is advertising.”

When it comes to the apps like WhatsApp and Instagram, he says it will take years of work to set up a good business foundation and ecosystem. I am surprised he mentioned WhatsApp here — I thought that was just going to be a messaging app and nothing more. His point to Wall Street, though, is that you should expect our evolution of these businesses to take years, not the next quarter or two.

Question on deep linking. Zuckerberg says there isn’t much to say yet. It’s too early. He says search for Facebook will be a multiyear voyage. So a question on deep linking — search results taking people inside apps, rather than web pages — turns intoa time to talk up Facebook search. The indexing of FB content continues. It, too, is a long journey.

Zuckerberg is going into the weeds on scenarios for developers who can have their apps interact with Facebook, etc.

Another question on ad pricing. Wall Street wants more! The analysts basically want some sense of how long the increase in pricing can continue. Right now, it is the shift to news feed that is doing it. Wehner said there are some other things at play: FB is overhauling those right-column ads to make them more valuable. So, little detail other than ad pricing isn’t about to hit a brick wall.

Question on China, and then on Marcus — why is a payments-background guy running messaging apps? Sandberg says Chinese companies are using FB to reach a global audience. And, since FB wants to connect the world, that includes China. That was it. As for Marcus, Zuck says he just thinks it is a good higher. There will be some overlaps between the Messenger app and payments over time, yes. But again, there is so much groundwork still to build the foundation, stop asking. FB isn’t going to thrust ads into Messenger — not happening cheaply, he says. Get that out of your models. Zuck can’t be clearer.

Question on how many developers are building their experience on Facebook. Yes, a lot of people use FB login, but what about building apps inside FB. “We’re not an operating system,” Zuck says. He says FB wants to help companies build, grow and monetize — it offers tools. But mobile developers aren’t building their apps in Facebook. He is happy developers see value in touching a part of the platform. Sandberg chimes in that FB is going slowly in picking developers that are using FB’s ad products.

Question on ads: what have you learned from video ads, and tell us more on the right rail ad.

On video, Zuck says it is important to make sure quality is good. He underscores what he thinks is a quality user experience with auto play ads. But there are concerns he is focusing on: he wants to make sure that when people see a video, they just don’t think it is an ad. He is also being careful that the videos aren’t consuming a lot of people’s data.

Question on privacy, citing anonymous logins and the “save” feature not being open to friends initially: Is there a strategic shift for FB?

Zuck says there is this misunderstanding about FB. The company is focuses on creating private spaces for people. FB gave people a way to share with groups that didn’t exist before. That’s what FB continues to work on. Messaging is growing quickly — people want to share with small groups.

Question on mobile ads: Are you at a point where the relevancy and quality are good enough that you can ad more? Wehner said FB is focusing on it, monitoring the data, pleased with engagement, and soFB in a good position to continue to grow the business. I think that was a .. yes?

Follow on Oculus, and where virtual reality it fits: Zuck said it hits on a different part of FB strategy. It is far, far out. He likens it to the mobile as a computing platform. What’s the next one? He is basically saying VR could be the one, and this time FB will help define it. That’s a deeper answer than blinking to make a status update. Remember how far behind FB was on mobile — it was nearly a disaster. This time, FB is ready and Zuck told analysts to expect costs to increase on this one.

Last question, which was hard to hear, was about public content, exclusive content and search. And a sneaky third one on depreciation and amortization. Yes, D&A will come up as facilities go into service.

This quarter, Zuck says, FB has seen more than a billion searches a day for the first time. So people are searching. There is so much content to find, he says, that FB is working hard to index it. So if you search for that Shakira video on Facebook, you can find it. It is all years away, but Facebook is committed to the investment.

It’s hard for me to see it, but the general thrust of that question was whether Facebook can eat away at searches that might have taken place in Google or Bing. Well, yes, if Facebook can serve people results they are asking for — and keep them in the app. But you also have to consider how the search ecosystem might change in five years. I’m thinking of things like voice search and intelligent answers, not a page of search results.

That was the end of the call. Not a ton of detail about what was a solid quarter. Facebook isn’t hitting singles yet. It is still hitting triples and doubles.

Zuck tried hard to temper expectations that somehow the standalone apps like Messenger and Instagram are on deck waiting to pick up the slack where when the torrid mobile-ad growth starts slowing down. It’s going to take years. He’s trying to let you down gently, Wall Street.

Zuck and Sandberg stood by their oft-repeated statements that any changes to users’ experiences will be done slowly, with an emphasis on not rocking the boat too much. Don’t wait for shoddy ads crammed into Instagram, for example.

At the end of the call, Facebook’s stock was up 5.2%. Nothing happened on the call to pop the balloon. And Wehner did suggest, if you wanted to read into his answer, that Facebook has room to show more ads on mobile, and make more money.